Ernest alschttler



E. ALSCHU LER.

HAND LAMP SWITCH.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 9, I917- Patented July 12, 1921.

III villi/4d, I l

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ERNEST ALscHuLEn, or ST. LOUIS, mrssormr, ASSIGNOR, BY MEsNEASSIGNMENTS, mo'NA'rIoNAL CARBON COMPANY INC., E CLE ELAND, OHIO, ACORIORATION OF NEw YORK.

- To all whom it may concern:

I 'Beit known that I,

ERNEST -ALSCHIULERY, a citizen of the United States, residin at St.Louis, in the county of St. Louis, tate of Missouri, have inventedcertain new and use-' tric. circuits and more particularly to switchesadapted for use on battery. hand lamps. I

Intheuse of portable lamps of this character many occasions arise whereit is convenient to leave thelamp lighted indefinitely andindependent ofany hand manipulation. At othertimes it is convenient to have a switchadapted ;to be controlled directly by the thumb or finger of the-usersothat an intermittent lighting of the lamp may be had. The switch lastreferred to should be of such a' construction that it will automatically.openwhenever the hand of the user is removed.

' provide a device meeting the above requirei mum amount of space on theexterlor of the i 1 connect the latter to the shield. Upon the ments andNvhich. at the same time is simple in construction, reliable inoperation, of

rugged construction and occupying a mimhand lamp .casing.- I I Otherobjects and advantages of the device will be apparent from a descriptionof one embodiment thereof, as illustrated in the I accompanyingdrawi ofwhichverse section along the line 3 -3 of Fi 2;

Figure 1 is a view 0 a battery hand lamp showing the casing and switchin section; Fig. 2 is an enlargedsectional view of the mechanism of theswitch; Fig. 3 is a trans- Fig. 4 is a view of the under side 0 theshield within which the switch contacts are mounted; Fi' '5 is a detailview of one of Referring to the drawings, in which similar referencecharacters denote similarparts l throughout the several views thereof,10 represents a tubular" casing. preferably con,- Structed of insulatingmater al, such a h d Specification of Letters Patent.

HAND-LAMP SWITCH.

Patented July 12, 1921.

Application filed June 9, 1917. Serial No. 173,690.

fiber. Surrounding the forward end of the end to end and mounted in acarton within,

the casing. Conducting strip 20 attached to the inside of the casing 10has its outer end in contact with the sleeve 11 and hence forms a partof the lamp circuit and extends back to the switch mechanism. A similarconducting strip 21 within the casing, extends to i the other endthereof where it 1s connected to a sleeve 22 which is screw-threaded tore: celve a cap 23 which, by means'of a spring 24:, holds the batteryin. place andalso serves as a. portion of the circuit leadin from'theother pole of the battery. All 0 the parts above described are of usualform and ar-' e p v rangement and may be varied inmany ways; It is anobjectof the present invention to The switch mechanism of the present1nvention comprises a shield 25 having curved wing portions 26 adaptedto be attached to the outside of casing 10 by means of rivets 27, one ofwhich passes through the end of conducting strip 21 (Fig. 3) toelectrically same by motion of the thumbpiece.

Contact element 31 has a downwardly extending end portion 33 adapted toengage the end of a rivet 34 which attaches the ine ner end ofconducting strip 20 to casing 10. Contactelement 31 is also providedwlth a small projection 35.

A second contact element 36 is held in place between "the first contactelement 31 and the top of the shield. This second contact element is ofresilient metal and is provided, with recesses 37 on its edges throughwhich the tangs 29 of the thumb piece extend. The recesses on contactelement 36 are somewhat longer than those on contact element 31 in orderto permit motion of the latter with respect to the shield. The free endof contact element 36 has attached to it a push button 38 which, whenthe contact element is in its normal position, extends through anopening'in the top of the shield. A contact point 39 may be attached tothe under side of contact element 36 in a position to engage the contactstud or rivet 34. when this contact element is actuated. This samecontact element 36 is also provided with dents or depressions 40 withinwhich the projection 35 on contact member 31 is adapted to fit in eitherof two positions. The tangs 29 hold contact element 31 firmly againstcontact element 36 and also hold the latter against the inside of shield25, thus putting all of these parts inelectrical connection.

hen the members of the switch occupy the position shown in the drawingsthe lamp circuit will be open, as both of the contact elements are outof engagement with the stud or rivet 34: forming one terminal of thebattery circuit. hen it is desired to light the lamp and retain controlof the latter under the thumb or fingers of the user, the button 38 isdepressed, bringing contact point 39 into engagement with the rivet 3aand thus completing the lamp circuit "from conducting strip 20 throughcontact element 36, shield 25, one of the rivets 27 and conducting strip21. As long as the button is held depressed the lamp circuit will beclosed, but as soon as released the contact element will spring back toits normal position, thus opening the lamp circuit.

If it is desired that the lamp shall burn continually without thenecessity of holding the button 38 in depressed position, thumbpiece 28is slid along the shield and carries with it contact element 31 bringingthe end 33 thereof in engagement with rivet 34. Contact element 36 doesnot, however, partake of the sliding motion of the other contactelement, since the button 38 extending through the top of the shieldprevents any considerable longitudinal motion. The extent of movementpermitted to the contact element 31 is just sufficient to cause theprojection 35 to pass from one of the depressions a'O into the otherone, thus tending to hold the contact element in engagement with rivet34 until it is forcibly restored by being actuated in a reversedirection. hen in its normal, open position the projection 35 restswithin one of the depressions L0, as shown in Fig. 2, to hold thecircuit open.

While the two contact fingers or elements are adapted to be actuatedindependently of each other they are retained in place against theinside of the shield by a single means and they also enga e a singlecontact stud.

The device is thus of simple construction and embodies only a fewelements. While it has been shown as applied to one particular form ofhand lamp it is obvious that it may of the battery, a depressiblecontact mounted I within the housing and adapted to contact with thecontact upon the casing, and a sliding contact also mounted within thehousing and adapted to be moved under the depressible contact, intocontact with the contact mounted upon the casing.

2. In a device of the kind described, a casing of insulating material, abattery therein, a lamp in contact with one pole of the battery, acontact connected with the pole of the battery through the lamp, ametallic housing connected to the opposite pole of the battery, andalternative means for connecting the housing with the contact,comprising a de pressible spring contact normally out of contact withthe contact upon the casing,

operating means therefor extending through the casing, a sliding contactand operating means therefor outside of the housing, both of saidcontacts being electrically connected to the housing, and the slidingcontact being adapted to be moved between the depressible contact andthe contact upon the casing.

3. Contact mechanism for battery hand lamps, comprising in combination,a conductor, a resilient contact strip mounted to swing into engagementwith said conductor, a push button on said contact strip, a contactelement mounted to slide beneath said contact strip into and out ofengagement with said conductor,.and a thumbpiece for actuating saidcontact element and securing said strip and element in position;substantially as described.

4. Contact mechanism for a battery hand lamp, comprising, incombination, a conductor, acontact element mounted to swing intoengagement with said conductor to complete the circuit therethrough, acontact member mounted to slide along the under face of said contactelement into and out of engagement with said conductor, and meanswhereby the sliding contact member may be actuated.

5. Contact mechanism for a battery hand lamp, comprising in combination,a conductor, a contact element mounted to swing into engagement with theconductor, a contact member mounted to slide along said element into andout of engagement with said conducengagement with the conductor, acontact member mounted to slide along said element into and out ofengagement with said conductor, a housing, and a thumbpiece mounted toslide on said housing and operatively connected to retain the contactelement and the contact member in place in said housing and whenactuated to cause said sliding contact member to engage said conductor.

7 Contact mechanism for a battery hand lamp, comprising in combination,a flat resilient contact strip mounted to swing into engagement with aconductor to complete circuit therethrough, said striphaying recessededges, a pushbutton on said strip, a sliding contact element mountedbeneath said contact strip and having recessed edges, and means foroperating said sliding contact element comprising a pair of dependingmembers adapted to fit within the recesses in the edges of said slidingcontact element and passing through the recessesin the edges of saidcontact strip whereby they may be moved with respect to the latter tocause motion of said sliding contact element with respect to saidcontact strip.

8. A switch for battery hand lamps, comprising a shield, a contactwithin the shield, a plurality of spring contact fingers attached to theinterior of saidshield and adapted to engage said contact, meansassociated with one of said fingers and extending throu h an aperture inthe shield whereby this nger may be actuated, and means mounted upon theoutside of said shield and operatively connected to the other of saidcontact fingers whereby the latter ma be actuated to engage saidcontact, an a rojection upon said second contact finger a apted toengage recesses in said first contact finger in order to retain saidsecond contact finger in either of two positions.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

ERNEST ALSCHULER.

